1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to paper accumulating machines and, more particularly, to a method and system for transferring tissue paper from one tissue-accumulating reel to another.
2. Description of Related Art
In the tissue paper and paper towel producing industry, conventional paper machines produce a paper web of a given width that is wound around a reel as it is being produced. As each reel becomes filled to capacity, an empty reel replaces it. To effect this reel transfer, the web of tissue being produced (or being transferred from one reel to another) must be detached from the full reel and reattached to another empty reel. In the manufacturing of lightweight tissue and paper products, a significant amount of lost production is seen in the transfer of one roll of finished product to the next. The difficulty arises when one roll is completed and the next roll is started. Current methods used to transfer from the completed roll to the newly introduced reel (also referred to as core or spool) are not efficient. Some methods start a new roll at full machine speed with an inefficient method of tacking a slim “tail” strip of the tissue to the new core. This is often done by altering the core itself or applying a fluid onto the core to pick up the leading edge of the tissue. These inefficient methods often either deface a large portion of tissue on the beginning of the reel or tear the tissue which requires production to be down for manual rethreading of the leading edge of the tissue onto the reel. Other methods require slowing or stopping the paper machine for manual or semi-automatic tissue transfer onto the new core. These methods require the placement of one or more operators in locations that significantly increase the risk of injury. All of the methods commonly used are inefficient and therefore waste and lost time in production occurs because of poor reel transfer.